9 Candidates For City Manager To Be Pruned To 3

Nine candidates interested in running Hartford's administration interviewed with Mayor Carrie Saxon Perry and the city council in an all-day session Saturday at city hall.

Hartford's politicians are seeking the next city manager and hope they have found him among the batch of people interviewed.

"I hope so, but it's always a chance it will open again," Perry said, shortly after the interviews concluded at 11:30 p.m. She said the interviews went well.

Each candidate was interviewed for about an hour and was rated by individual council members. After the last candidate had left, the council had a short discussion.

Afterward, Deputy Mayor Fernando Comulada said Perry and the council expected to winnow the field to three candidates by Friday. They plan to announce the finalists then, in time for a public reception planned for Saturday.

Council members remarked on the range of candidates.

"It was a very diverse group in terms of experience and knowledge," Comulada said. "Some have previous city manager experience in towns, others in departments where the budget is bigger than the city's budget" of $445 million.

"We had a whole bunch of candidates with many levels of experience," Councilman Eugenio Caro said.

Local semifinalists are Hartford Fire Chief John B. Stewart Jr.; Alan J. Greenwald, former executive director of the Hartford Redevelopment Agency; and George B. "Pete" Kinsella, a former city treasurer, who was considered an early favorite for the position.

Howard J. Stanback, a former city resident who served in the administration of the late Mayor Harold Washington of Chicago, is considered a top candidate for the Hartford job. Stanbeck is a former associate professor and an assistant dean at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work.

The other semifinalists are John Plonksi, water commissioner for the city of Philadelphia; Albert V. Divirgilio, former mayor of Lynn, Mass.; James C. Smith, city manager of Concord, N.H.; David B. Musante Jr., former mayor of Northampton, Mass; and William Sequino Jr., town manager of East Greenwich, R.I.

The council and mayor will appoint a new city manager April 27.

The new manager will be expected to participate in the budget season, which the council will have just started, council members have said. City managers have been paid an annual salary of about $100,000.

Shortly after Perry and the council members were elected in November, former City Manager Gene Shipman resigned at their request. He is now chief administrator of Philadelphia.

Richard M. Cosgrove, a veteran of the city's corporation counsel's office, has been interim city manager since that time.

Council members during their campaign emphasized finding local candidates for city jobs, considered a strong factor in this selection. Also, some council members want to strike a balance among the city's top positions of power that reflects the roughly one-third black, Latino and white populations of the city